Pa. High School Nixes ’Spamalot’ Over Gay Wedding Scene

Officials from a high school in South Williamsport, Pa., located in northern Pennsylvania, canceled the production of "Monty Python’s Spamalot," scheduled for next spring, after parents of the students at the school complained that there was a same-sex marriage featured in the Tony Award-winning play, Think Progress reports.

According to South Williamsport Jr./Sr. High School’s drama department director, Dawn Burch, the school’s Principal Jesse Smith wrote her an email explaining that homosexuality does not exist in a conservative community like South Williamsport, she told WNEP News.

Think Progress reached out to Smith for a comment but Superintendent Mark Stamm responded with a statement, saying that the drama program includes students from grades 7-12.

"We want our performances to be appropriate for the student performers and audiences so that anyone participating or watching can enjoy all aspects of the show," he said.

Students told WNEP that they know of openly gay students at the high school and that Williamsport school district has had a gay-straight alliance since 2008.

In the play, which based off the seminal film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," knight Lancelot is outed as gay during a disco number after he saves an effeminate prince from his strict father and the two men end up marrying in the show’s final scene.

Think Progress notes a number of high schools around the nation have put on productions of "Spamalot" and that the company that licenses the rights to the show includes a resource, specifically for school productions, that has suggestions of how to deal with the script, such as taking out inappropriate language and it also provides a guideline for removing the same-sex wedding.